Airline woes

MINNEAPOLIS -- United Airlines said on Wednesday it will furlough 1,550 flight attendants as it reduces its flying this fall.

The furloughs work out to roughly 10 percent of United's cabin workers. United is seeking 7,000 job reductions companywide by the end of 2009, said spokesman Jeff Kovick. United has previously announced plans to cut as many as 1,600 managers and 5,500 front-line workers, and to furlough 950 pilots.

United said it would seek voluntary flight attendant furloughs first, but will need to get to a total of 1,550 by Oct. 31.

DALLAS -- Southwest Airlines Co., which had resisted the kinds of capacity cuts being made by other carriers, will eliminate nearly 200 flights early next year as it struggles with high fuel costs and a weakening economy.

The move raised doubts about the company's publicly stated goal of growing modestly in 2009 despite the airline industry's troubles.

Now, Southwest will cut 196 flights while adding only six new ones in its schedule that takes effect Jan. 11.

That is nearly 6 percent of the airline's daily schedule of close to 3,400 flights.

Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz said Tuesday that some of the eliminated flights, which span Southwest's nationwide network, could be restored later in 2009. Late winter is typically a slow travel period.

"This is a response to a slower traffic period, and we're giving ourselves some operational flexibility in the winter months," he said.

Passengers stranded after Canada's Zoom planes grounded

TORONTO -- Hundreds of Zoom Airlines passengers were stranded Thursday in Canada and the UK after the cash-strapped Canadian airline suddenly canceled all of its flights after creditors took action to get money owed them.

Zoom said the economic downturn and the unprecedented rise in the price of aviation fuel made it impossible for the privately owned company to continue operations.

"We have done everything we can to support the airline and left no stone unturned to secure a refinancing package that would have kept our aircraft flying," company founders Hugh and John Boyle said in a statement.

Boyle said the company was unable to complete the investment package, leaving the directors of Zoom with no option.